Niagara Town Board approves fees for special use permits

by Ralph Schwarz
Niagara Wheatfield Tribune, Dec. 16, 2004

The Town of Niagara Town Board unanimously approved the set annual fees for special use permits at last Tuesday’s meeting.

Effective Jan. 1, 2005, the town will charge $50 for residential and $250 for non-residential special use permits. The fees will apply to first-time applications and renewals for the one-year permit.

“We never had any fees associated with the special use permits,” said Town Supervisor Steven Richards. “The renewal permits in particular require the assistance of engineers and attorneys.”

According to Richards, the town arrived at its fee structure after calculating the average costs it had to cover for engineering and legal consultations related to special use permits during the last years.

“It was an average of $50 for residential and around $240 for commercial,” Richards said. “So we set the fees at $50 for residential, $250 for commercial to allow the town to recover its costs associated with issuing special use permits.

Permits Cover Various Purposes

Residents in the Town of Niagara request special use permits for various reasons, ranging from home occupancy to storage trailers and temporary parking lots.

“Special use permits are good and useful because they help somebody in a hardship or in situations that are not covered by current law,” Richards said. “But it costs us hundreds of dollars to issue these.”

The supervisor pointed to the recent special use permit request submitted by David Chevrolet to expand their parking lot temporarily.

“All that involved us reading the site plan,” he said. “When we let our engineer review the plan, the town had no way of recovering the money. Plus, every time a request for a new permit or a renewal request comes in, attorney fees are associated with it.”

Richards said he estimates that the town processes about 30 renewal requests for special use permits per year.

“This costs us hundreds of dollars and we did not know how to recover the costs,” he said. “But now we will.”

Other Business

In other business, the Town Board unanimously voted:

•To approve the abandonment of Creekside Drive, also known as Creekside Driveway.

•To approve the fund transfers as amended.

•To pay bills as properly audited and verified.

•To post one laborer position in the sewer department.

•To adopt the model deferred compensation plan as amended.

•To approve the payment of $20,406 to CIR Electrical Company for the Military Road Lift Station, as recommended by R & D Engineering.

•To post one laborer position in the sanitation department.

•To authorize the participation in the 2005-07 New York State Fuel and Diesel Gasoline contracts and to purchase regular gas and diesel fuel from the contract.

•To schedule a public hearing on the rezoning of Creekside Parkway/Kushies from R-1 to L-1 for Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2005, at 7 p.m.

•To schedule the 2005 re-organizational meeting for Monday, Jan. 3, 2005, at 4 p.m.

•To purchase a CP-634i Multimedia Projector in the amount of $1,353 from the New York state contract #PC61392. The projector will be shared by all of the town’s departments.

•To authorize payment #2 in the amount of $2,365.50 to CIR Electrical Construction Corp. for the work performed at the Military Road Lift Station, as recommended by R & D Engineering.

•To authorize the final payment in the amount of $14,289.65 to MMR Construction as approved by the town engineer.

•To approve the contract with S.E. Koltzarz Consultants at $2,500 per month for 2005.

•To authorize Frizlen Architects to solicit bids for three picnic shelters at the Community Center.

•To support the creation of a New York State Veterans Cemetery in the town of Alabama.

•To accept the tentative agreement between the Town of Niagara and CSEA Local 1000, Town of Niagara unit, effective from Jan. 1, 2005, to Dec. 28, 2008, as amended.

•To authorize the town supervisor to execute the agreement relating to the town’s sanitation department and the tentative union agreement.

•To absorb the workforce currently employed in the town’s sanitation department so that no job losses occur in the event the town should decide to privatize the contract currently fulfilled by the town’s sanitation department.

•To approve the benefits for elected officials, including town supervisor, town clerk and highway superintendent, as submitted.

•To authorize the town attorney to settle with the Bolender family the issue of removal of visual obstructions, including the reduction of fence height to 4 feet, removal of a shed and concrete pad and delivery of the shed to the town court.

•To authorize the mileage payment of $900 to the town supervisor for 2004.

•To accept the final site plan for David’s used car facility, 10175 Niagara Falls Blvd.

Next Meeting

The Town Board will hold a re-organizational meeting on Monday, Jan. 3, 2005, at 4 p.m. The next regular Board meeting will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2005, following the public hearing scheduled for 7 p.m.